Today's edition of quick hits:
* Ebola: "Thomas Eric Duncan, the first patient diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, has died, a spokesperson for the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital said Wednesday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed Duncan's case eight days ago, saying he had begun exhibiting symptoms of the disease on Sept. 24."
* ISIS: "Gun battles and explosions echoed from the embattled Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani on Wednesday, as Islamic State militants detonated a car bomb and new American-led airstrikes hit the northern edge of the town, close to the Turkish border. A Kurdish official in Kobani, Assi Abdullah, said that despite the bombing, Islamic State fighters had managed to enter new areas of the town and move north, closer to the border."
* Safety precautions: "Federal officials said Wednesday that they would begin temperature screenings of passengers arriving from West Africa at five American airports, beginning with Kennedy International in New York as early as this weekend, as the United States races to respond to a deadly Ebola outbreak." Four additional airports will be added next week.
* Secretary of State John Kerry wrote an op-ed today urging more international cooperation: "[T]he fact is more countries can and must step up to make their contributions felt, and the charts tell the story. There are not enough countries to make the difference to be able to deal with this crisis. We need more nations -- every nation has an ability to do something on this challenge."
* Turkey on ISIS: "Erdogan said Tuesday that Turkey would not get more deeply involved in the conflict with the Islamic State unless the United States agreed to give greater support to rebels trying to unseat the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. That has deepened tensions with President Obama, who would like Turkey to take stronger action against the Islamic State and to leave the fight against Mr. Assad out of it."
* Marriage: "In another surprising move from the U.S. Supreme Court this week, Justice Anthony Kennedy granted an emergency request Wednesday from Idaho officials to delay a federal appeals court ruling that struck down that state's and Nevada's same-sex marriage bans. Later on Wednesday, Kennedy lifted that hold only as it applied to Nevada, allowing same-sex nuptials to go forward there."
* VA: "The Veterans Affairs Department is firing four senior executives after a nationwide scandal over long wait times for veterans seeking medical care and falsified records covering up delays."
* Now we're talking: "Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, a potential Democratic White House contender, said in an interview published Wednesday that 'Wi-Fi is a human right.'"
* Nobel: "The 2014 Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded Wednesday to Eric Betzig of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Research Campus in Ashburn, Va.; Stefan W. Hell of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry (Germany), and William E. Moerner of Stanford University for their work in overcoming the limitations of the traditional light microscope."
* And we're still working on our new Whip Count project. We’re keeping a running tally of members of Congress who want to return to session – cutting their vacation short – in order to vote on authorizing military intervention against ISIS. I hope you’ll take a look and keep us posted.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.